14A

To keep up with the requirements of this course I have made sure to turn in all the assignments on time. The biggest hurdle I have had with this is that there are like four steps to turning an assignment for this class. On two separate occasions I have done the whole assignment for this class and then forgotten to complete turning it in. Since this has cost me a lot of points already I now have an alarm set on Fridays that reminds me to double check that I have submitted the assignments correctly.

I recently had a moment where I realized that I had failed my financial accounting exam. This was pretty upsetting because I had studied a ton for it. I felt like I really understood the material and I even felt good about the exam after taking it. so when the scores were released I was very surprised. I was upset for a few days but after reading the next chapter in the financial accounting book I was reminded that I really do enjoy the material and I am now more determined than ever to pass the next exam.

I would offer these three tips to any student who is struggling and needs to improve their tenacity:

Never give up.

Believe in who you are.

Find solutions that work for you.

13A - Ray Kroc

I chose to read about Ray Kroc because he founded McDonalds, which is a company that I think is a little evil. Because of this I thought it would be fun to read about the man who started it and see what sort of person he was compared to his lasting legacy. I was surprised to learn that he was actually a pretty admirable person. He served his country in WW1 and after that became a salesman with a ton of perseverance. I even have things in common with him, like we both play piano.

I really admire the way that he didn’t let anything thwart him in his path to success. Like he continued to sell milkshake machines even after his old paper cup company started taking 60% of his profits. One thing I definitely don’t admire about him is the company that he helped to create. Anyone who has seen Supersize Me understands that there really isn’t a lot positive to say about what McDonalds is doing today. Their food is incredibly unhealthy. Their burgers don’t even rot. However, I would like to hope that when Kroc was in the early stages of getting this company going he wasn’t aware of what a monstrosity it would become.

Ray Kroc had many of the traits that you would expect to see in an entrepreneur. He was strong and unwavering in his belief in his products. He had a knack for seeing what would be big in the future, for example he predicted the rise in use of disposable goods and that’s why he got started selling paper cups. When he faced adversity from others he powered right through. He demonstrated this even in his youth when he wanted to fight for his country but he was too young and his parents wouldn’t let him. Eventually he convinced them to let him join as a medic so he lied about his age to join and went off to serve.

I would like to ask Kroc how he identified a winning idea. He was right about the disposable products and about McDonalds. So how did he decide that these things were going to be big? I would also like to know his opinion about how his company is doing today. Would he consider them a success or a monstrosity?

I am sure that Kroc believed in working hard. He worked hard his whole life and was an older man with many health problems before he even got started with the McDonald brothers. I also believe in hard work but balanced with giving yourself free time to enjoy your life. If you are working really hard and having a terrible time then what’s the point? I think a healthy balance between work and play is best.

12A

The segment I would like to focus on is college students. That is because college students have similar needs and because I know a lot of them. I also am a college student so I may have a better understanding of their needs then someone who isn’t one.

The 3 interviews:

Carly: a junior at UF majoring in plant science

Carly expressed that she feels there is a need for better parking and transportation services in Gainesville. Last year she lived off campus and didn’t have a car and she had to take two different buses just to get to the plant science building. She said it was especially hard to get where she needed to go when it was in the morning on weekdays, which is a peak time for students to be riding the bus. She also thought that rider was unreliable and more than once it had predicted the arrival of a bus that didn’t exist.

Jacob: a sophomore at UF majoring in philosophy

Jacob has a car and lives right next to campus so he didn’t have the same issues with parking and transportation that Carly did. However, Jacob feels that there is nowhere on campus to get a nutritious and affordable lunch. When on campus the only options are gator dining services or fast food. I told him about Krishna lunch and he said he’s tried it before but that it wasn’t really his thing. And I also acknowledged that Krishna lunch does serve the same thing every week. Jacob currently brings his own lunch to school because he has spent all day on campus and is not happy with any of the other options.

Dorian: a sophomore at UF majoring in biochemistry

Dorian was very vocal about the lack of standardization in the way that professors lay out their class on canvas. According to him some have tons of tabs and everything is organized perfectly while others have only a few and you have to guess where everything is located. Some professors post assignments on the assignments page and some post them as quizzes and others have the assignments in a different type of software with no mention of them on canvas. He thought that just setting some basic guidelines like that all assignments would be posted under the assignments page would improve the lives and schedules of many students.

I think that the college student segment is fairly aware of their needs. As young adults who are just getting started living on their own they have a lot of issues that need sorting out. The three people I interviewed all had issues that could really only be fixed by the school administration or government of Gainesville. However I think there are some ways an entrepreneur could take advantage of these situations.